Method of producing contoured sheet materials



METHOD OF PRODUCING CONTOURED SHEET MATERIALS Filed Nov. 17, 1967 MILLERJuly 1969 Sheet of 2 .Hmnw AIKIT FIG. 3

0 0 0 O o o o o o O O O O O O INVENTOR HILIP MILLER ATTORNEYS y 8, 69*P. MILLER 3,454,413

METHOD OF PRODUCING CONTOURED SHEET MATERIALS Filed Nov. 17, 1967 Sheetof 2 INVENTOR. PHILIP MILLER United States Patent Ol'ice US. Cl. 1175.54 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE There is described a process forembossing a sheet material by printing a pattern on selected portions ofthe sheet material with a heat retarding liquid and subjecting the sheetmaterial to a heat source to cause the areas on the sheet unprotected bythe liquid to become recessed in relation to the protected areas,thereby producing a decorative article whose contours conformsubstantially to the printed pattern. Decorative articles for homefurnishing, wearing apparel, etc., may be produced in accordance withthe disclosure in the form of laminated or unlaminated battingmaterials, pile materials, or other fabrics.

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.381,710, filed July 10, 1964 and application Ser. No. 471,279, filedJuly 12, 1965, both of which applications are now abandoned.

Numerous techniques for producing decorative articles of manufacturesuch as wearing apparel, home furnishings, etc., are disclosed in theprior art. It is known that an embossed article may be produced bydepositing in pattern form, an adhesive on selected areas of a foammaterial and thereafter securing an overlying fabric material to thefoam material in those areas where the adhesive pattern is printed so asto reproduce the printed pattern on the overlying fabric material.Contoured articles may also be produced with a multiple-needle sewingmachine. Limitations exist with respect to such contouredthree-dimensional fabrics produced on a multiple-needle sewing machinein the type of decoration producible. Also such a sewing process isrelatively expensive due to the slow speed of operation.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide arelatively simple process for producing highly decorative monolayer ormultilayer sheet materials in which there are practically no limitationson the type of pattern of decoration producible.

Another aspect of the present invention is to produce contoured sheetmaterials by means of printing thereon a pattern with a liquid heatresisting material and subjecting the sheet material to a heat source tocause the areas unprotected by the liquid material to become recessedbelow the liquid protected areas.

A further aspect of the present invention provides for printing of apattern on a sheet material having voids with a liquid materialcomprising water so as to cause those areas unprotected by the liquidmaterial to become fused and recessed below the protected areas upon theapplication of heat to the sheet material.

Yet another aspect of the present invention is to contour normally flatsheet materials such as batting, pile 3,454,413 Patented July 8, 1969fabrics, etc., by printing thereon a pattern with a liquid heatresisting material and exposing the printed surface to a heat source toproduce a decorative fabric having selected portions recessed belowother portions to produce a sculptured effect.

It is still another aspect of the invention to vary the depth of thecontoured pattern by regulating either the amount of heat-absorbingliquid printed on the sheet material or the length of time during whichthe material is exposed to the heat or both.

An additional aspect of the invention is to produce multilayer articlesby printing a pattern on a base sheet material with a liquid heatresisting material and securing an overlying fabric to the base sheetmaterial in selected areas of the base sheet to thereby reproduce thepattern on the surface of the overlying fabric.

Other aspects and features of the invention will be apparent when thefollowing description is considered in connection with the annexeddrawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a foam sheet embossed in accordancewith my invention, a portion of the embossed sheet being shown with afabric covering laminated thereto and having the same embossed form asthe underlying sheet;

FIGURE 2 is a diagrammatic side elevation showing a means for feeding asheet of foam material between a pair of rollers, one of which prints adesired pattern upon the upper surface of the sheet with water or otherheat absorbing liquid. This view also shows a plate upon which the sheetof foam material lies as it passes from the first or printing rollers toa second set of feed rollers and likewise shows a flame which extendsacross the sheet in the area between the rollers;

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of the mechanism of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of a heat shrunk fabric ornamented inaccordance with the invention;

FIGURE 5 is a diagrammatic side elevation showing of a suitableapparatus for producing contoured heat shrinkable articles in accordancewith the invention;

FIGURE 6 is a top plan view of the mechanism of FIGURE 5; and

FIGURE 7 is a perspective view of a pile fabric ornamented in accordancewith the invention.

The process of the present invention may be employed to producedecorative articles of manufacture from sheet materials for use inwearing apparel, home furnishings, etc. The selection of a particulartype of sheet material is not critical to the process except that it bea material which can be contoured by selective heating in predeterminedareas. Included among suitable sheet materials are foam type materialsand polymeric fiber containing mate ials. The foam material may be afoamed polyurethane of either the polyester or polyether type. Thepolymeric fiber containing materials include fibrous batting such asbatting made from nylon fiber, polyester fiber or any fiber having athermoplastic binder such as vinyl acetate or acrylic resin; a heatshrinkable fabric whose fibers lie substantially in the plane of thefabric such as for example, ninon greige goods, Rhovyl-SS (a polyvinylchloride fiber), Herculon (an olefin fiber), tricot fabric, e.g., tricotwith a trilobal monofilament, etc. Preferably the heat shrinkablematerial is a fabric which shrinks at least approximately ten percentwhen heat shrunk; pile fabrics, e.g. carpeting having a pile whichconsists of polymeric fibers such as olefin fibers (e.g.,

polypropylene, acrylics, etc.), velvet fabrics, etc., napped tricots,etc.

Turning now to the drawings, FIGURE 1 illustrates a sheet of foammaterial which, as indicated, may be polyurethane foam of eitherpolyester or polyether type having a pattern in the form of a grid ofdepressed areas 11 therein. It will of course be understood that thegrid pattern indicated is for illustrative purposes only and that anydesired pattern may be formed.

The depressed areas 11 are areas in which the foam material has beenmelted and fused and the air expelled from the cells, thus causingcollapse of the material and a fusing which causes these areas to bedepressed as stated.

Referring now to FIGURE 2 there is shown therein a simple apparatus forperforming the printing and exposure to flame which, as discussed above,results in the article of FIGURE 1.

The unembossed foam sheet which may be for example a quarter inch thicksheet is passed between the rollers 12 and 13, thence over a plate 14and into the bight of a second pair of rollers 15 and 16. Above theplate 14 is a perforated pipe 17 through which fuel is conducted to formthe flame 18 which plays upon the upper surface of the sheet 10. Also,as shown in this figure, printing roller 12 has small recesses 20 ofpredetermined depth drilled or otherwise formed therein and bearsagainst the surface of the material 10. The patterned recesses in roller12 are wetted with water by means f a trough formed by a doctor blade 21which extends longitudinally of the roller 12 and the upper surface ofthe roller 12 is wiped clean by doctor blade 21. As is clearly indicatedin FIGURE 3, the recesses 20 of the printing roller 12 are arranged inthe desired pattern.

As will be obvious, the foam material is printed with a block patterndefined by the areas 23 on the printing roller 12 as the material passesbetween the rollers 12 and 13. The water utilized and deposited in theholes 20 may, if desired, be combined with a thickening agent such asacrylsol ASE-60 produced by the Rohm & Haas Company or with otherthickening agents such as starch or methyl cellulose to facilitate theprinting and to control the depth to which the water or other agent maybe impregnated.

As the material passes from the printing rollers 12 and 13 to the takeuprollers 15 and 16, it passes beneath the flame 18. Since the areas whichhave been impregnated with water by the printing roller have theirtemperature reduced due to the latent heat of vaporization of theliquid, these areas are heat resistant and retain their originalcellular structure. The unprinted areas, however, become heated to asuflicient temperature (with the material mentioned approximately 450F.) to fuse the polyester thereby breaking down the cellular structurein the desired areas to a regulated depth and collapsing the material sothat the surface thereof lies beneath the surface in the waterimpregnated areas. The takeup rollers 15 and 16 are normally placedsufiiciently far from the flame 18 so that the fused material has resetand lost its tacky characteristic and thus has no tendency to adhere tothe roller 15.

However, if desired, the rollers 15 and 16 may be placed somewhat closerto the flame 18 and a fabric sheet indicated in dotted lines at 24,FIGURE 2, be laminated to the surface of the foam material. As will beobvious, this fabric sheet will adhere to the foam material only in thegrid pattern formed by the lines or areas 22 of the printing roller orcylinder 12. Thus the overlying fabric layer 24 will likewise beembossed since it will follow the contours of the underlying foammaterial 10 and will, in the instance illustrated, have the grid patternof the lines 11 of FIGURE 1 visible therein.

Although the simple apparatus described is suflicient to form thearticle as set forth above, it will be understood that the water orother liquid fire resistant material may be printed on the foam byconventional rotogravure printing methods as described, for example, inMiller Patent No. 3,070,476, assigned to the assignee of thisapplication. It is obvious that the laminating of the fabric to theupper surface of the material may be done in the usual manner by aseries of rollers rather than by a single roller as shown.

Moreover, if desired, the selected sheet material may be maintained in astretched position during the lamination of the fabric thereto as shownin my copending application Ser. No. 330,357, filed Dec. 13, 1963 (nowUS. Patent No. 3,352,741) to thereby assure that suflicient fabric ispresent to permit the base sheet material to return to its normal shape,that is, suflicient material so that the sheet material is notmaintained in a compressed condition due to the fabric being tautbetween the areas of adhesion. In some instances, the base sheetmaterial may be stretched sufficiently so that when it is released andreturned to its normal form, a slack portion is left in the overlyingfabric forming small folds and enhancing the decorative effect of thematerial as is also set forth in my copending applicationabove-mentioned.

Also, particularly when the water has been suitably thickened by theincorporation of agents mentioned hereinabove, the amount of liquidprinted on the foam sheet material may be varied resulting in differentdegrees of depression of the various areas since the foam sheet materialhaving lesser amounts of water thereon will be melted to a greaterdegree than will those having greater amounts and of course materialhaving no water impregnation will be melted away or fused to thegreatest depth.

The variation in amount of water deposited may also be accomplished byvarying the depth of the small reresses or depressions 20 in theprinting roller 12 thus varying the amount of water deposited upon thebase sheet.

In some instances it is desirable to utilize my method in producingembossed foam sheeting having a fabric backing laminated thereto andhaving the embossed areas of a depth extending substantially orcompletely to the backing material. As is readily understood, this canbe easily accomplished by impregnating the printed areas to aconsiderable depth with liquid so that the melting and fusing of theunprotected areas extends substantially to the backing material thusresulting in a sheeting having stripes of foam material laminatedthereto forming hinges between the stripes rendering the materialflexible and readily draped for us in clothing and the like.

In FIGURE 4, there is illustrated a heat shrunk fabric 10a having itsfibers lying substantially in the plane of the fabric which may be anonheat-set ninon fabric made from a polyester or type 6 nylon filament,Rhovyl-SS," Herculon, etc., having a pattern in the form of puckeredareas 11a thereon.

The puckered areas 11a are areas in which the fabric 10a has beenprinted with water or other heat-absorbing material 12a as previouslydescribed in connection with FIGURES 1-3 and the areas without anysubstantial puckering 13a correspond to unprinted areas. The un wettedareas shrunk upon the application of suflicient heat causing the printedareas, substantially unaffected by the heat, to pucker.

Referring now to FIGURE 5, there is shown therein an apparatus forperforming the printing and exposure to heat of a heat-shrinkable sheetmaterial to produce a puckered article as illustrated in FIGURE 4.

A substantially heat-shrinkable fabric 14a is passed through a nip 15abetween rolls 16a and 17a. Roll 16a is a gravure or engraved roll whichis inked in any suitable manner as by water or other heat-absorbingmaterial applied by a doctor blade 18a.

In the embodiment shown in FIGURE 6, the roll 17a is a smooth-surfacecylinder Which may be made of metal, or rubber or metal coated withrubber or otherwise suitably constructed. Roll 17a may be caused to berotated at a speed synchronized with that of roll 16a.

The surface of the roll 16a contains engraved or otherwise producedrecesses 19a. Each of these recesses is inked by water, preferablythickened water or other heat-absorbing liquid material 12a which istemporarily retained in the recess by capillary action, adhesion, orotherwise. As the substantially shrinkable fabric 14a is fed through thenip 15a between rollers 16a and 17a, recesses 19a which contain theheat-absorbing material are gradually brought in compressive contactwith fabric 14a and commerce to deposit the heat-absorbing material ontothe fabric 14a. The quantity of the heat-absorbing material thusimprinted corresponds generally to the depth of the recesses from whichthe heat-absorbing material is deposited.

As indicated in FIGURE 6, the recesses 19a of the printing roll 16a arearranged in the desired pattern. The shrinkable fabric 14a is printedwith a block pattern (for purposes of illustration) defined by the areas20a on the printing roll 16a as the fabric passes between rolls 16a and17a.

After the substantially shrinkable fabric 14a passes between rolls 16aand 17a and has the desired pattern printed thereon, it is exposed to aheat source. In FIG- URE 4, the heat source is an oven 21a havingopenings 22a and 23a for the ingress and egress of fabric 14a. Rolls 24aand 25a along with rolls 16a and 17a serve to guide fabric 14a intoopenings 22a and 23a for the ingress and egress of the fabric.

As the printed fabric 14a passes into the oven 21a, the areas 26a whichhave been impregnated with water by printing roll 16a have theirtemperature reduced due to the latent heat of vaporization of the water.Thus, these areas 26a are heat resistant whereas the unprinted areas 13abecame heated to a suificient temperature (with polyester ninon fabricapproximately 350 F.) to shrink the fabric in the unprinted areas. As aresult of shrinkage, the surface of the water-printed areas will riseabove the surface of the nonirnpregnated areas thereby producing apuckered effect. The shrinkage of fabric 14a can be seen in FIGURE 5 asit passes out of oven 21a. The specific form of heating apparatus usedis not critical, of course, and electrical or other infrared heaters orother devices may be employed. It is only required to heat the dryfabric portions to shrink temperature without overheating.

After the ornamented fabric passes between rolls 24a and 25a it may befed to a wind-up roll (not shown). Secondary low temperature heatingapparatus may be employed to dry out the fabric if desired.

FIGURE 7 illustrates a contoured pile fabric 20 obtained in accordancewith the process of the present invention. The depressed areas 30 arethose in which no liquid pattern was printed and the areas 31 comprisingthe pile fibers which correspond to the areas of the pile fabric onwhich a liquid pattern was printed.

A contoured pile fabric such as illustrated in FIGURE 7 may be obtainedby printing the liquid pattern by gravure, silk screen or other methodsof applying prints to fabrics.

A contoured napped nylon tricot was contoured in accordance with theprocedure illustrated in FIGURES Z and 3 of the drawings. A waterpattern was applied with a gravure roll which prints to a depth of about.010 lnch. At this depth, the nap which is about .02 inch deep issaturated to the back. After this pattern is printed on the mapped nylontricot (e.g., type 6 nylon), the fabric 1s exposed to a flame so thatwhen the fiber reaches a temperature between about 350450 F. significantloss of pile height occurs in the nap due to shrinkage.

The water used to contour the pile fabric contained a sufiicientquantity of thickening agent as previously described to obtain aviscosity in range of about 500 to 1000 cps. This reduces the lateralmigration of the liquid and facilitates the printing of a well definedpattern.

Carpeting with a pile of 0.25 inch was also contoured in accordance withthe process of the present invention. The pile consisted ofpolypropylene fibers. Preferably an engraving roll is used that will wetapproximately 10 to 30% of the depth of the surface of the pile. Afterthe liquid pattern is printed in the manner previously described, thecarpeting is exposed to a heat source which results in the contouredarticle. It is believed that this effect is caused by the fibersshrinking, melting or fusing in the unprotected areas when thepolypropylene pile fibers reach a temperature of about 250 F. At least10% reduction of pile will occur in the unprotected areas. The reductionof pile in the unprotected areas can be increased by increasing the timeexposure of the carpeting to the heat source.

Among other materials contoured in accordance with the process of thepresent invention was tricot with a trilobal nylon monofilament (e.g.,Antron). The glossy face filament in this tricot appears to shrink intothe body of the dull multifilament nylon substrate knit of the fabric.The substrate is a material which has a higher melting point than theface filament. Those areas of the tricot fabric protected by the patternare not affected by exposure to a heat source.

Other variations are contemplated by the present invention. The degreeof ornamentation and sculpturing may be altered by modifying theviscosity of the liquid heat resisting material printed in pattern formon the sheet material, varying the depth of the recesses in the printingroll, etc. The visual effect produced may also be further enhanced byincluding a dye material in the printing liquid.

The contoured sheet material of the present invention are particularlyuseful as a decorative material such as for clothing, home furnishingsand in other applications where decoration is desired. Also, the articleof the present invention can be used for insulation purposes such as forclothing lining, bed covers, etc., by laminating the dec orative articleto an insulation material such as polyurethane foam.

I claim:

1. The method of producing a contoured pattern in a sheet materialselected from the class consisting of a foam material and a polymericfiber containing material which comprises protecting a pattern ofselected areas of said sheet material from heat with a liquid comprisingwater applied in said selected areas and exposing the surface of saidsheet material to a heat source to thereby cause the unprotected areasto become recessed in relation to said protected areas, therebyproducing contours in said sheet material in substantial conformity withsaid pattern.

2. The method of producing a contoured foam sheet material having voidstherein which comprises feeding said sheet between a pair of rollers andsimultaneously printing a pattern on one surface of said foam sheetmaterial with water, passing said foam sheet material through a flameunder urge of a pair of takeup rollers and regulating the speed ofsaidprinting and takeup rollers to cause said flame to fuse said foammaterial in the unprinted portions, thereby reducing the voids of saidfoam sheet material in said unprinted portions and depressing thesurface below the surface of the printed areas, the speed being suchthat suflicient heat is absorbed by said water to prevent fusing andreduction of the voids in said printed areas.

3. The method of producing a contoured pattern in a substantially heatshrinkable fabric which comprises protecting a pattern of selected areaswhich are to be the raised areas in the finished product from heat witha liquid comprising water printed in said selected areas and ex posingthe surface of said shrinkable fabric to a heat source to thereby causesubstantial shrinkage in the unprotected areas of said fabric resultingin said protected 7 8 areas of said fabric being raised in relation tosaid unpro- 2,776,868 1/ 1957 Russell et a1. 1175.5 X tested areas.2,957,793 10/1960 Dickey 16188 X 4. The method according to claim 3wherein said heat shrinkable fabric is a material whose fibers liesubstan- ALFRED L. LEAVITT, Primary Examinertially in the plane of thefabric. 5

ALAN GRIMALDI, Assistant Examiner. References Cited UNITED STATESPATENTS US Cl. X.R.

2,372,761 4/1945 Boyd 156- 82 X 1l738, 46; 156209; 161119;264-80, 321

